Palestinians rebuffed in Israeli fence case

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ISRAEL'S highest court has rejected a ruling by the
International Court of Justice that Israel's construction of walls
and fences inside the occupied Palestinian territories violates
international law.

In a unanimous ruling by nine judges, the High Court of Justice
rejected a petition from five Palestinian villages calling for the
half-completed 600-kilometre complex of walls and fences that
gouges into the West Bank and East Jerusalem to connect Jewish
settlements to Israel to be outlawed.

The court ruled that Israel had a right to build the barrier to
protect its citizens  including Jewish settlers in the West
Bank  from terrorist attacks.

It said the international court had not heard Israel's side
before making its ruling last year; nor did it consider Israel's
security needs.

Israel refused to participate in last year's ICJ case, which led
to a ruling that Jewish settlement extending fences to protect
Jewish settlements in the West Bank contravened the Geneva
Convention's provisions forbidding states from settling their own
citizens in seized territories. The court in The Hague ruled that
the route of the fence inside the West Bank was based on political
considerations and not purely on security grounds.

But in a partial victory for the petitioners, the Israeli court
ordered the army to consider other arrangements to improve their
lives. The petitioners had complained that the barrier around their
villages protected not only the Jewish settlement of Alfei Menashe,
home to 5000 people, but 1100 hectares of West Bank land that
Israel has seized to allow for future expansion of the
settlement.

In Washington this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
said Israel would continue to expand its settlement of the West
Bank despite international pressure, including criticism from its
main sponsor, the US. He was speaking three days after Israel
withdrew the last of its troops from the Gaza Strip.